Written By: Kidecia King
The Context of Your Reality In Your Family, Community, Society, The World & With/As Yourself/ Your Self
Yoga is not just about posing (by any possible definition and/or connotation of the word).
Yoga is a long-studied, universally applicable, phenomena and way of living/existing that exercises, and works with, all aspects of one’s being, from the physical to the mental, and everything in between.
In practice, Yoga is a science of the mind, body, and spirit that encompasses all aspects of life and empowers its initiates with higher Self-awareness and elevated self-expressions–if these practitioners are diligent in their work and devoted enough to their learning to strive toward the ultimate aim of this spiritually centered lifestyle path–which frees them from ignorance through Self-Realization that can eventually lead to their settling into their divine Nature, and attaining Liberation from the ongoing suffering caused by attachment to fleeting form and the perpetual bondage to unconscious Karmas that plague our world.
Asana, or, more specifically, just the physical stretches aspect of Asana practice (which is the limb of the Eight-Limbed Path that most people have associated with Yoga in Western society), is only one aspect of this all-encompassing science.
In order to gain the full benefits of Yoga, one has to be devoted to practicing all eight limbs required, without exception, and be willing to make their practice a life-long endeavor. These eight limbs include Yamas, Niyamas, Asanas, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.
Today, we will focus on the first two limbs of the Eight-Limbed Path of Yoga–and their individual components–in order to provide you with a clearer idea of where your practice should actually begin: in the mind and conscience…and specifically in the cultivation of an internal state of being that has a balanced and healthy (yet unattached/unaffected/independent) relationship/connection with the “external world,” regardless of whether the world, or the people of the world, reciprocate or ever express any balance, decency, higher values, etc., in return, or at all.
Limb One:
Yamas (Your Personal Code Of Conduct): The values, ethics, and restraints that you choose to abide by to transcend the tendencies and impulses of your socially conditioned and easily dysregulated animal nature. These are meant to be customized to your individual expression based on your internal compass and the context of your existence. You can add additional and more specific values to this limb of your practice in order to underscore each required aspect. Your basic Yamas, however, will always include:
- Non-violence (Ahimsa)– Nonharmful actions, words, thoughts, and intentions (Karmas) toward others and toward yourself. This includes non-judgment and taking care not to carelessly create damage to others’ (or your) physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual well-being.
- Truthfulness (Satya)– Lying (or believing in lies), gossiping, spreading rumors, projecting negative or hateful fantasies/imagined stories (and so forth) about others and/or onto others/the world, etc, are all obviously behaviors that are outside of truthfulness. This Yama also involves being honest with others and with oneself in a non-violent way that does not withhold the full reality of a situation or hide or distort facts in order to avoid conflict, in order to get something, in order to manipulate a situation (or someone’s mind), or in order to not go against the status quo for acceptance, comfort, or anything else. It is also knowing when to stay silent so as to not end up engaging in lies by delusionally assuming that you have inside information into things that you could not possibly know (like the contents of other people’s lives, motivations, desires, compulsions, psyches/minds, etc.) when interacting in/with the world. Staying out of judgment and projection and focusing on your own knowledge of your own self/Self (which is the only thing that you can possibly know) is the purest form of this expression of truthfulness. Most simply, and importantly, truthfulness is about not falsely attributing reality to things that are not real.
- Self-control/To Live By Brahman Or The Absolute Reality (Brahmacharya)– To advance in Yoga, you must have self-restraint over external and internal drives/forces. This includes possessing the knowledge and capacity to avoid overindulgence, and worldliness, in all areas of life, from overindulgence in foods, to overindulgence in sex, drugs, consumerism, emotions, socializing, and other (addicting or dependence-causing) things, behaviors, and so forth. This is self-mastery that begins with conscious choice to live a higher path devoted to a higher Truth/Reality and, thus, choosing to be less pulled in/to/by the things of the world that only offer a false, temporary, lower, superficial (and often destructive) fleeting sensory fulfillment in the world. It is exercising restraint over your thoughts, words, and actions before you are naturally balanced regarding your senses, the pull of the senses, and your animal urges/tendencies.
- Non-stealing (Asteya)– Not taking, or taking on, things that do not belong to you, this includes objects as well as intangible things such as other people’s time, energy, freedom, happiness, peace, dignity, rights, and so forth.
- Non-greed/non-attachment (Aparigraha)– Not being attached to things, people, outcomes, and so forth, or hoarding things that one does not need, fully appreciate, nor have use for. Non-greed also includes not “taking gifts,” which essentially ensures that you are free from transactional or obligatory (explicitly or implicitly stated, “good” or “bad”) ties to others over tangible or intangible objects.
Limb Two:
Niyamas (Your Actions in Support of Your Personal Code of Conduct): Habits and ethical practices that support the values and morals that you choose/are called to live by, and from those gained in/by your Yama practice. These include:
- Self-purification (Shaucha)– Cleanliness of 1) body (in every sense, for example internally and energetically, and beyond the surface–this is not mainly about showering/taking a bath), 2) mind (especially down to intentions), 3) words (spoken to yourself in private and/or to others), 4) thoughts (and their accompanying emotions), 5) actions (seen and “unseen”), and 6) and maintaining purity in your understanding of your self/Self. This goes beyond the superficial meaning of purity and cleanliness to mean purity of being. Cleanliness from false ego-identification, for example, is vital here.
- Contentment (Santosha)– Cultivating happiness/balance within oneself on a consistent basis. Practicing being content/satisfied with what is (no matter what form it shows up in), and not just thinking happy thoughts on a superficial level is what truly defines this practice.
- Self-discipline (Tapa)– Accepting but not causing pain. These are your vows to remain focused on your True and higher work, and on your inner development (especially when it is “hard”). It is your commitment to do the “right things” necessary to fulfill your obligations to achieve your higher goals for yourself–which sometimes includes others–but without attachment, in your vocations, relationships, and particularly in your self/spiritual development.
- Self-study (Swadhyaya)– This is not only about working on diligently observing and understanding “yourself” from a place of simply and neutrally “looking inward” to gain knowledge about yourself conceptually and as/through your body-mind-ego. It is also about studying the self/Self on all levels based on contemplation, observation, meditation, learnings passed on from teachers, scholars, enlightened beings, the company of like-higher-minded people (Satsang), books, and so forth (but filtering and analyzing these learnings through your own being and cultivated/discerning lens of understanding in order to not be led astray). The ultimate goal of self-study is to gain an understanding of yourself/your Self from “everything,” and specifically from within, through meditation and contemplation so that you can discover, and fully/completely know, your own answers about who you are.
- Devotion to a higher path/practice (Ishwara Pranidhana)– Surrendering your will to a higher power/the divine/greater Truth. For this part of your practice, you are asked to let go of your ego and all of your attachments so that you can practice full trust in your spirit/higher expression and devote yourself fully to it. Ishwara Pranidhana is full devotion to your spirit and to the spiritual path.
These first two limbs of Yoga practice are powerful reminders that much of your work on this journey to Self-Realization/Liberation is done internally. And, although your practice relates to the external world, and your relationship to/in the world, in many ways, this path is about you and what you do with/within yourself. Your inner work is what determines how you relate to/experience the external world, regardless of the people, places, and things “out there,” and how/if they relate to, behave toward, and/or show up for you.
Your journey, paradoxically, has nothing and quite a bit to do with others and the world around you as you learn to be in the world while knowing that you are beyond and not of it.
Yamas and Niyamas clearly illustrate what is required as the basic foundation for your practice. These two limbs ultimately create a bedrock of strong inner fortitude and alignment that is necessary to be a person who generates good karma (actions that have a cause and effect) in the world from a place of deeper and more meaningful awareness and understanding so you remain untangled in the ongoing web of destruction and suffering that plagues our species.
These practices set the right conditions for a deeper knowledge of the Self that transcends the distortions accumulated from being born into societies and accumulating delusions and animal/social conditionings in relationship to others and (in) an external world that is often hostile, ignorant, and dysregulated and not fully expressive of its pure divine nature.
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Investigating multi-dimensional holistic wellness as an inter-disciplinary artist and Yoga-Meditation writer, thinker, and practitioner. Doing experientially-based self-agency work grounded in research, reflection, and practice.